All systems go

I've just got back from a meeting with the nurse at the clinic, and suddenly this is all seeming very real. We've come away with a huge sheaf of papers to read and sign, and we'll be starting the short protocol on day 1 of my next cycle - which should be around 9 September. I'll have approximately two weeks of daily injections and every-other-day scans, hopefully culminating in egg retrieval in the last week of September and embryo transfer two days later.

The nurse who took us through all the details helpfully pointed out that by the time the treatment starts, I'll be over 40, since my 40th birthday is at the beginning of September. This means that, provided I produce enough eggs, they could transfer up to three embryos (the maximum allowable in the UK for those under 40 being two). We turned that down - we don't know whether this cycle will be successful and if it is, how many embryos will 'take', but I don't want to risk having triplets at my age and with a family history of high blood pressure.

She asked how many people we'd told that we were going through the treatment. I said most of our families knew, and we'd both also told people at work so that we could get a bit of flexibility for appointments. She actually advised us against telling too many people, as every person who knows you're going through treatment is another person you have to tell if it fails.

So although lots of people know that we're going to be going through some form of treatment, we're going to try to keep the timing of that treatment a bit more under wraps as far as we can, and because I have an endless need to think and talk about what's happening to us, I'll be unloading myself to cyberspace instead...